The port, located south of the city of Yanbu on Saudi Arabia's western coast, has a tank farm on land and sea to load, receive and store oil of Arabian grades.

Restoration of the facility and integration with the existing crude oil supply network strengthens the role of Saudi Aramco as a reliable supplier of energy resources in the world, the company notes.

“Successful launch of the southern Yanbu terminal is another important milestone in strengthening Saudi Aramco’s goal of becoming the world's leading producer of integrated energy resources,” said Abdullah Mansour, executive director of pipelines, switchgear and terminals at Saudi Aramco.

On October 12, 2018, the International Energy Agency (IEA) stated that the world's reserve oil production capacity had already decreased to 2% of global demand, and it is likely that there will be a further reduction. IEA lowered its forecast for global oil demand growth for this and the next year by 0.11 million barrels per day to 1.28 million bpd and 1.36 million bpd, respectively.

OPEC members and other exporters, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, have sharply increased their production since May - by about 1.4 million bpd, the IEA reported.

OPEC increased production by 735 thousand bpd from May. Countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates made up for the decline in production in Venezuela and Iran, against which US sanctions will be imposed next month.

"The increase in production from key suppliers led by Saudi Arabia by about 1.4 million bpd from May and the fact that oil reserves increased by 0.5 million bpd in the second quarter of 2018 and probably did the same thing in the third quarter, reinforces the argument that the oil market is sufficiently supplied at the moment,” the IEA said in its October report.